Actor Naveen Shankar, who debuted with the smart cyber-thriller Gultoo in 2018, had a breakthrough last year with three movies making the right noises. If he was an integral part of an ensemble in Dharani Mandala Madhyadolage (crime drama) and Hondisi Bareyiri (coming-of-age drama), Naveen played the brutal antagonist to Dhananjaya’s titular character in Gurudev Hoysala.
Kshetrapathi, from debutant director Shrikant Katagi, is Naveen’s first solo lead film after his debut; he deserved a better project. The director struggles to balance his realistic and cinematic treatments, proving the challenges that come with making a message-meets-entertainment film.
Naveen plays Basava, who rushes back to his hometown in Gadag from Bengaluru, after learning about his father committing suicide due to loan burdens. The film attempts to tackle issues such as price fixing of agricultural products, farmers’ income, and land grabbing by corporate companies.
Kshetrapathi (Kannada)
Kshetrapati’s shaky start is a sign of things to come. Jolted by his father’s death, Basava decides to quit his education and find justice for the farmers of his town; it’s a huge decision, but the director fails to establish Basava’s character traits.
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Basava is briefly shown as an engineer with the American Dream. Hailing from a small town, we wonder what his aspirations are in a big city like Bengaluru. What makes him a bright student, as claimed by his college? Was he always brave, or was this a transformation? The film fails to offer answers to these questions.
Director Shrikant Katagi overlooks the importance of a focused screenplay and indulges too much in telling the audience how much he knows. So we hear about the problems of agricultural loans, the unpredictable nature of private jobs etc. This approach from the filmmaker results in a series of lectures from the protagonist, whose monologues come in front of big crowds, a video journalist (Archana Jois), and even the caricaturish antagonist of a local MLA.
The film slips further with several melodramatic scenes. Ravi Basrur’s (KGF fame) ear-splitting background score makes you feel like you are watching a loud and uninspired soap opera. The director’s idea to make the story contemporary is evident when Archana’s character quits a job in a traditional media house to start her YouTube channel. But unbelievably, her channel races to six lakh subscribers in no time. The unrealistic progress of the plot and the bizarre shifts in tone make it tough to stay invested in Kshetrapathi.
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A director’s priorities decide the fate of a film. Here, Shrikant Katagi is keen on making a weepy film without finesse. So you witness a stretched-out overdramatic sequence of a youngster’s death, but the protagonist’s transformation as a vigilante is hurriedly shown to us. Basava attempts to bring the government’s attention to the ailing farmers with his revolutionary thoughts. But in the overall scheme of things, they seem ineffective and too little, too late.
The budgetary issues are unfortunately evident when you see several rookie actors appearing out-of-place in front of the camera. Kshetrapathi is a film of missteps that becomes tough to sit through.
Kshetrapathi is currently running in theatres.
